Start – Bealey Hut
Finish – Hamilton Hut
Daily Distance – 15 km
TA Distance – 2232 km
Before leaving town, I was fairly convinced that this 4 day section wasn’t going to be great. Nobody
mentions anything much about it and the trail notes make it sound pretty uninspired. Well, it turns out I
was totally wrong. After yesterday’s unusually picturesque walk along the state highway, today has been
even better. A stiff climb in the early morning chill placed me above the bush line and sidling around the
northern edge of Mt Bruce. I spent quite some time taking photos, admiring the view down into the valley
and gratefully basking in the sun which had finally risen above the neighboring mountains. This is what
morning’s on the trail are all about.
Figuring I should actually do some more walking I reluctantly pushed on. Nothing in the rest of the day
matched the morning, but it was a nice enough jaunt through the bush and river valleys. Harder going
than I expected owing to frequent ascents and descents, most of which were too small to register as a
contour on the map. I do miss the UK ordnance survey maps and their 10m contour intervals. Kiwi maps
use 20m intervals, which is great for drawing mountains, but does mean that some sizable terrain features
can go completely unnoticed.
Sleeping in a hut will be welcome tonight. Last night I opted to camp as the hut was quite small, but it
was a bitterly cold night. The south island seems to be experiencing a cold spell at the moment, although
that only lasts for as long as the sun is down. Hence why I started hiking in jacket, gloves and trousers
this morning, but ended up sweating in shorts and t-shirt an hour or two later. Tomorrow I may just try to
push through the cold to save the faff of redressing myself later. Watch this space for the results of my
manly experiment!
